Passing Lac de Serre-Ponçon, the largest
reservoir in Europe (by volume) we stopped to look at the Demoiselles
Coiffées, strange eroded rock formations of which there are several in
this region, and after a lazy day enjoying the warm sunshine overlooking
the lake we drove east along the Ubaye Valley to Barcelonnette, a busy
touristy town where we were unable to locate the aire at the aerodrome
(now closed ) and after a brief walk around the town continued further
east to find another aire at Jausiers with a broken Flot Bleu service
point but as it was getting late would do for the night so we parked up
along with three other motorhomes. We didn't take to this area especially
so the next day drove back east passing an aire with waste dump (scruffy
loos so decided not to use the fresh water tap) at le Lauzet-Ubaye, and
then south noticing a distinctive change to the red and ochre colours of
the buildings indicating we were entering the Provence region and on to
Digne-les-Bains another busy but attractive town with welcoming shady
streets. We managed to find a bookshop that sold the Michelin green guides
in English (we hadn't planned to tour this area originally so hadn't
brought many France guidebooks with us. They were also considerably
cheaper than the UK price!). After a quick study of the maps and site
guide books we decided to head for St André-les-Alpes through the
attractive valleys often alongside the narrow gauge Train des Pignes that runs from
Nice to Digne.

aire at St André-les-Alpes

Lac de Serre-Ponçon

Demoiselles Coiffées

Parked up for lunch

St André-les-Alpes was a small town with
some old streets and a trompe-d'oeil shop window.and had a good free aire/parking
area well signposted in the town (jeton for Flot Bleau was 3€ from
tourist office or bars). Although there was plenty of room a French
camping-cariste still managed to park in the adjacent bay and proceed to
sit outside and listen to a World cup football match on his tranny.
I don't think they realise the door on a UK 'van is on the opposite side;
perhaps a rollout awning may help to stake out our pitch in
these situations. It also had very bright floodlighting! As we left in the
morning his wife muttered about the trail of water coming from underneath
our van but I had just filled up the fresh water tank and we were parked
on a slope. I did my best to explain in broken French but she wasn't
convinced about the habits of the British!

Trompe d'oeil shop window St Andre

Just south of here was the northern end of the Lac de Castillon, where
several motorhomes were parked. The road east passed through several rocky
gorges emerging at the turning to Annot a very attractive old village
where we discovered a pleasant aire in the woods to the west of the
village square. There were interesting narrow streets with fountains,
passageways and typical Provençale house fronts with a chaotic array of
doors, windows and flowers. There are interesting rock formations in the
hills overlooking the village but it was too hot for long
walks.

Annot town square

fountain in Annot

typical Provençale house - Annot

The next day was even hotter as we continued east heading for Entrevaux.
As the main road crossed the River Var we spotted a sign to Camping du
Brec, an ACSI discount site so turned up the narrow lane and found a
pleasant campsite run by a Dutch couple, with a swimming and boating lake
and some welcome shade. It was about 3km to Entrevaux another interesting
walled village with a Vauban built citadel overlooking the valley up a
steep zig-zag path from the village.

Entrevaux pretty back
street

After a pleasant evening stroll around the town we watched as two
passengers alighted from the last train of the day from Nice. It is
possible to take a vintage steam hauled train along this 20km stretch of
the track between Puget-Théniers and Annot on Sundays (link
for details)

Entrevaux town entrance

Entrevaux and path to citadel

Train des Pignes at Entrevaux

Entrevaux windows

We now turned west to the Canyon de Verdon and lavender fields of
Provence